I live in Germany. No idea how much we pay for health insurance, it's taken out of salary before we see it. DH's insurance covers me and all the children including DS1 who isn't biologically or legally his. I think it's a percentage of salary, rather than a set amount. You can probably look this up. I know that whatever we pay is matched by the employer. This is the same for unemployment insurance, pension insurance (contribution to state pension) and long term sickness insurance. These all replace national insurance I believe.
In general I like the system here and am very happy with it. The quality of care is excellent and you can generally get everything you need. There is some duplication that doesn't seem very efficient, for example in the UK when I've needed an ultrasound I've been sent to the hospital and they have been carefully rationed as though a scarce resource. Here I had one every single appointment in all my pregnancies, including a 3D one. My gynaecologist has two machines in her office. There are several in the maternity suite at the hospital, probably other places too. GPs have one - I had one when I had persistent kidney pain and one for a thyroid check up. DH went to a urologist and he had at least one. This is great for me as a patient but thinking of the overall cost for all those machines and everyone to be trained to use them.
I always feel here that doctors have time for you. I don't feel rushed and once you're in with a doctor then you can generally have as many appointments as you like. The idea of being offered six sessions of counselling would be strange here - the treatment continues until it's no longer needed.
My main gripe is the decentralised nature of the system. It's left up to the patient to do all the admin of locating a specialist and making an appointment, you just get a referral. But whether it's because I'm a foreigner or it's just hard in general, I find it baffling that nobody will assign me a person to see. I have to research myself who is available, there aren't any central lists either so I'm using Google maps or doctor listing websites that are often out of date. For example I'm trying to sort out ADHD medication at the moment. I made a list of 12 likely sounding options, but many of them don't have a website and don't say what exactly they do on their listing so four of them didn't offer medication, only therapy, or only treat children. Three were chronically engaged. Three I had to listen to a crackly and complicated recorded message explaining their phone times which are something ridiculous like 2 hours a week. (Most do at least take phone calls in the mornings every day!) When you do get through to somebody often they aren't taking new patients, or they only accept private self payers. Or they can't see you for weeks and weeks. By the way, this is also for emergencies like broken bones. DH broke his foot and I had to phone around MRI and x-ray places. It took six weeks by this time it was too late to operate. When we went back to the hospital they said oh, you should have come back to us. But nobody explained this... I thought this was a one off but then a friend broke her elbow and had a similar experience. There's nobody to go back to and say hey this is urgent, can you get me a faster appointment? And if you get overwhelmed and give up, nobody follows up. I buggered up my finger and never finished the physio and it's probably too late now.
In terms of paying, we pay for prescriptions although insurance sometimes covers part of the cost. Children's prescriptions are free. You are sometimes upsold services such as an extra eye test at the paediatrician or some gynaecologists give you basic scans free and charge a flat rate for the extra ones. Extra testing in pregnancy is payable like on the NHS. Glasses aren't covered. Basic dentistry is covered but things like a scale and polish aren't. You can buy dental or glasses insurance separately. Physio therapy or massages usually have a copay of about €30. An ambulance costs €10 and sometimes a night in hospital has a nominal fee, but I wasn't charged when my children were born. You often have to pay towards medical equipment like insoles or physio devices but insurance pays most of the cost.
Insurance covers days that you take off work to look after sick children, I like this a lot. There are also lots of surprising things covered by insurance like a helper person to come to your house and help with childcare, cooking, cleaning if you are temporarily incapacitated and have children or a sick child with other children to care for, or after a multiple birth.
Conditions in hospital with children are great. When I've been in with the children you get a room with max 1 other person - even in NICU it was like that. The food is okay and parents get proper beds. The birth was a bit more medical and annoying, they insisted on monitoring me in case I ran out of oxygen when on gas and air 😆 but I didn't have to wait long for an anaesthetist if I wanted an epidural. They even provided clothing and nappies and stuff for the babies!
Overall I like it but I think the NHS could do a lot of this with better funding and organisation and less pressure from lacking social care. Although there is some improvement from competition between providers often there is no choice anyway as only one doctor in the whole city will have space for new patients. And the decentralisation can be a pain.